1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical device equipped with a treatment instrument for treating the body tissue, and particularly to an endoscope inserted into a body cavity, a treatment instrument operation unit which serves to open and close treatment sections of various kinds of the treatment instrument used together with the endoscope, and a medical system equipped with the treatment instrument operation unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that the endoscope has been widely used in the industrial field or the medical field. As the medical equipment used in the medical field, the endoscope has an insertion portion inserted into the body cavity of the subject body so as to perform various kinds of treatments by inserting the treatment instrument into the body cavity via the treatment instrument channel formed in the insertion portion of the endoscope while performing the observation.
In the case where the body tissue is treated with the treatment instrument, the operator introduces the treatment instrument into the body cavity via the treatment instrument channel of the endoscope so as to take the body tissue or perform the treatment.
The operator inserts the treatment instrument into the body cavity while grasping an operation portion of the endoscope with one hand. The operator holds the sheath as the insertion portion of the treatment instrument with the other hand such that the sheath is manually inserted into the treatment instrument channel. The proximal end side of the sheath is held by the staff such as the nursing staff so as to prevent the sheath with the length of 2 m, for example, from being partially brought into contact with the unclean area such as the floor upon insertion.
The operator will take the body tissue with the treatment instrument while grasping the endoscope operation portion with one hand. It is impossible for the operator to operate the operation portion of the treatment instrument while holding the insertion portion of the endoscope with the other hand. For this reason, the staff is expected to hold the insertion portion of the endoscope or operate the operation portion of the treatment instrument. That is, assistance of the staff is inevitable for inserting the sheath of the treatment instrument into the treatment instrument channel of the endoscope, and operating the treatment instrument inserted into the treatment instrument channel.
Publication of U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,645 discloses the device for performing the automatic remote control of the endoscopic operation system such as the endoscope biopsy forceps device. The automatic remote controller allows the surgeon, for example, to operate the biopsy forceps by handling the operation means through the foot pedal or the voice command, for example.
Recently, the remote control with respect to various kinds of the treatment instruments, for example, the high frequency knife, the rotary clip and the like using the automatic remote controller has been increasingly demanded. The distance between installation positions of the thumb ring and the slider which form the operation portion of the treatment instrument, and the maximum displacement distance may vary depending on the type of the treatment instrument. The operator is required to coincide the installation position of the operation portion installation section attached to the remote unit with the operation portion of the treatment instrument every time when the treatment instrument is installed in the automatic remote control unit.